Greater yields, more energy and increased gas production have been found to be the benefits of DeltaRow sowing with the Lemken’s Azurit precision seed drill compared to conventional single-row drilling. These have once again been confirmed in a thesis submitted to Osnabruck University this year.
The positive effects were evident in all trialled variations, but were most pronounced at a seed rate of eight seeds per square metre, which is commonly used in the German region. At this rate, increases of 4.5 per cent in maize yields, 8.2 per cent in net energy lactation (NEL), 7.9 per cent in metabolisable energy (ME) and 5.4 per cent in biodigester gas yields were observed compared to the respective values achieved with single-row drilling without DeltaRow.
These yield and quality advantages delivered by the DeltaRow approach are due to the fact that DeltaRow gives plants about 70 per cent more space to develop compared to conventional single-row approaches. As a result, each plant has more space to absorb water and nutrients from, and therefore more room to grow. This has a beneficial effect on plant development.
The trial was conducted at Borken (North Rhine-Westphalia) in the spring of 2020. The effects of the factors seed rate (seven, eight or nine seeds per square metre) and sowing approach on crop yield and quality were examined by means of a large-scale plot trial. Naturally, tillage, seed strain, sowing and harvesting times were identical for all trial variants.
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